I Love The Sunshine Family

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

In 1976 Mattel introduced the Sunshine and Happy Family Grandparents. I believe it's the first time Mattel ever did an extended family for their dolls.

I loved the Grandparents so much! Probably because I only had one real set of grandparents who lived on the east coast who I never saw. Both sets of Grandparents had face molds that were designed to look like older version of the Sunshine and Happy Family Parents. Similar but different. Mattel really scored big with this decision. One of the best they made with these line of dolls. I had both the Sunshine Family and the Happy Family Grandparents.

The Sunshine Grandparents are so cute. The Grandpa (who was always my favorite) has lots of curly white hair and a white mustache and beard and blue eyes. He wears brown pants, a plaid shirt and a vest and boots like Steve's. The Sunshine Grandma has white hair done up in a bun and brown eyes.She wears a one piece flowered dress and a blue apron with pockets and black shoes like the Sunshine Fun Family Stephie's yellow ones.Their bodies are the original Steve and Stephie ones. Although The Sunshine Grandparents hair is supposed to be white I have found a few of these dolls whose hair is blond. Not sure if this was a result of bad quality control or how the dolls were stored or what.

The Happy Family Grandparents were favorites of mine too. They are a little harder to find and the ones still in the box are in the best condition but expensive. The loose dolls that I've seen weren't in great condition and the ones that are get snapped up right away.

The Happy Family Grandpa looks similar to the Sunshine Family Grandpa except with curly black and white hair, mustache and beard. He wears light blue jeans, a red plaid shirt and a green vest and brown boots. Grandma Happy has lots of loose curly white hair, a long orange one piece dress, a floral print apron with pockets and brown shoes. They both have brown eyes.

Both sets of Grandparents came as an individual set but I have seen the Sunshine Grandparents boxed as a set with the Sunshine Family pets. More on the pets later.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Happy Family was Mattel's African-American version of the Sunshine Family. I give kudos to Mattel for really being the first to do this. And also to give them their own identity instead of just the black Sunshine Family. In the 1970's it was rare to have black versions of popular dolls. Barbie hadn't gone black yet in the early 1970's. The Happy Family came out in 1975 a year before the second series of the SF. This Happy Family consisted of Hal the dad, Hattie the mom and Baby Hon.

One thing I never understood was why Hal is wearing a tank top. Steve is wearing a turtle neck and a long sleeved shirt. I remember driving my mom crazy with questions like that. Odd. Well anyway Hattie is wearing a very colorful skirt and top. Baby Hon is wearing a little outfit when Baby Sweets at this time is still in a sleeper. Baby Sweets outfit for the 3rd Series is the same as Hon's but with a brown bottom. This 1st version is pretty common and easy to find.

The Happy Family used the exact same mold as the Sunshine Family. The only difference being the skin and eye color and the dark curly hair.The Happy Family also had a 2nd version. It is super rare and when they come up for auction is always pricey. The last complete set I saw recently went for around $70 and really I've seen them go for much more. I don't have a complete 2nd series, I only have Hal and Toddler Hon seen below.

Toddler Hon is hard to find and I jumped for joy when I finally scored her! I found a photo on line somewhere to show you what the original set looks like, shown below. The baby in the 2nd series is just the same baby Hon so you can add anyone that you have. I do have more but I don't have that baby outfit. Hattie is also basically the same with a little color to her lips. She wears the same original shoes and the same hairstyle but her outfit is crazy hard to get!

I drove my mom nuts with begging for another Sunshine Family house so that the Happy Family could have their own house but she wouldn't go for it and said "They can all live together Jenny, what the big deal?" She never understood I wanted them to be neighbors and visit each others houses and stuff. Besides how do 4 adults, 2 babies and two sets of Grandparents live in a 4 room house when one of the rooms is a patio with 1 bed and 2 chairs? The Happy Family ended up living in Barbie's fold out townhouse but I always thought that Stephie was jealous of the Barbie furniture. ;0)

I'll post about the Grandparents next then I'll move on to the House and the kits and the other play sets. I hope you are enjoying my ramblings and please ask questions if you have any.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Well Mattel for some unknown reason went nuts and decided on the Sunshine Family Series 3 to completely make over all the dolls and even changed their name to" the Sunshine Fun Family". The African-American version was called "the Happy Fun Family". Mattel decided to change the whole Sunshine Family idea from slightly hippie, make it yourself, organic, handmade to a more materialistic 1980's idea. I guess they were going with the changing times but I really feel they ruined the dolls by doing this. Other must have felt this way too as the line of dolls ended soon after and Mattel went to a Barbie sized, looking doll line called ironically the Happy Family (the African-American version of the Sunshine Family was called the Happy Family).

This will be a longer post as I point out the changes made to the dolls. I hope all of this is informative to you. As a collector myself I need to learn these things to collect the correct pieces and series.

New box design and new name. Unfortunately this is the only box I have from any of the series. If you check out my very first post I have a photo of the original box for comparison.

On the box it says: "And now there are 4! Mom, Dad, big sister and baby brother having fun together!"The best thing about this series to me was that baby Sweets was now a little girl and there is another slightly different baby in the family.

Big change huh?

O.k. Steve has a new outfit and shoes and a Brady Bunch Dad Fro going on. Stephie has a new dress and shoes, longer hair (back to a more natural color) and eyeshadow and lipstick! Sweets is now a little girl. (I really love this doll) She has little orange shoes but they are super hard to find so mine is barefoot for now. And the new baby who is apparently a boy doesn't have a name and is a redhead. The baby's original outfit is a one piece jumper with a white top and brown shorts and kind of matches the dad's clothes.

Steve's curly fro.

Stephie has blue eyeshadow, eyelashes and lipstick.

The new baby is the same "Sweets" body just

with red hair.

Big Sister Sweets as she's known now has an outfit that coordinates with the mom's dress. Sweets as a little girl is hard to find and in her original outfit almost impossible.The ribbons in her hair are original too.

Mattel started offering different outfits sets for the Family at this time as shown on the back of the box. I do have some of them and will get to them at a later date. These sets were different than the DIY sets they previously offered for the original Sunshine Family that you had to finish making yourself.More to come on those later.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

As the Sunshine Family became more popular or perhaps to make them more popular Mattel did a re-design of the clothes.

Steve was given jeans instead of khaki pants and another red turtleneck in a brighter color with different fabric. His shoes were also a darker color. Stephie had the more significant change. Her old fashioned dress with the apron was replaced with a more modern jumper dress over a short sleeved red shirt. Her hair was a little shorter on this version and styled differently too. She also had more blond color than the more natural blond of the original series Stephie. Baby Sweets remained the same and in the same yellow sleeper outfit.

The Third Series will be shown in my next post and had the most radical change for Steve, Stephie and Sweets of all. As a child I only had Series 1 dolls and never even knew about the second or third Series until I was an adult.. Which Series did you have? Which you you like best?

About Me

Hi I'm Jennifer Tobicoe and I'm a new felt craft pattern designer. I've created felt soft sculpture for years and now I want to share my love of felt with you. Anyone can create amazing things in felt and I'm on a mission to help share with you how easy and fun it can be! Besides my love of felt, I'm a lover of all things small, colorful and cute. I hope you enjoy spending time on my blog!